Nicolas Maduro

Nicolas Maduro (23 November 1962-) was the President of Venezuela from 19 April 2013, succeeding Hugo Chavez. Maduro succeeded Chavez on his death on 5 March 2013, and he was officially elected President of Venezuela in April, presiding over the Bolivarian Revolution.

Biography
Nicolas Maduro was born on 23 November 1962 in Caracas, Venezuela, the son of a Venezuelan union leader and a Colombian mother; Maduro was of mestizo and Jewish descent. Maduro was raised Catholic, but he would later convert to Hinduism by 2012. Maduro joined his high school's student union, although he would not graduate from school. In 1986, he headed to Cuba with other militants, and he studied at the Union of Communist Youth's school in Havana. Maduro worked as a bus driver back in Venezuela, and he became an unofficial trade unionist representing the Caracas Metro bus drivers. In 1992, he campaigned for the release of coup plotter Hugo Chavez after the failed coup against the capitalist government, and he supported Chavez in his rise to power, becoming his vice president on 13 October 2012 after Chavez was re-elected as president for a third term.

Maduro assumed the powers and responsibilities of president after Chavez's death, and on 14 April 2013 he beat Justice First candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski with just 1.5% of the vote. Maduro ruled by decree to wage "economic war" against enemies of Venezuela's government, and he renewed his rule by decree several times in 2016 even after the United Socialist Party of Venezuela lost 41 seats in parliament to the Democratic Unity Roundtable in December 2015 elections. Maduro presided over rising murder rates (82 people out of every 100,000 people) as well as a recession that began in 2014, and he forged closer ties to China and Iran in opposition to the United States, which he accused of supporting attempts to overthrow his rule.